Overview of Textile Technology in Ancient

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China 4

Feng Zhao

Clothing, food, housing, and transport are basic necessities of life for human beings in any time at any places. By guaranteeing such basic needs, textile technology has become one of the most important components in our technological history. Textile technology occupies an important position in Chinese history of science and technology, among which silk technology particularly has made an extremely important contribution to the whole world’s history of science and technology.

Keywords

Textile technology · Ancient China · Traditional ritual system · Raw materials · Textile industry

Clothing, food, housing, and transport are basic necessities of life for human beings in any time at any places. By guaranteeing such basic needs, textile technology has become one of the most important components in our technological history. As the

F. Zhao (*)

China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China

X. Jiang (ed.), A New Phase of Systematic Development of Scientiﬁc Theories in China, History of Science and Technology in China,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7844-1_4

107

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rest of the world, textile technology also occupies an important position in Chinese history of science and technology, among which silk technology particularly has made an extremely important contribution to the whole world’s history of science and technology, exerting signiﬁcant impacts on development of the world’ technology and culture.

4.1 The Structure of Textile Industry in Early Times

Cotton, wool, linen (fiber of hemp, flax, etc.), and silk are four main and general kinds of raw materials of naturalfibers. Ancient civilizations in different regions had all created rich textile cultures in their own special natural environments. In the course of history, various textile cultures gradually took shapes with distinctive traits. Briefly speaking, the four great ancient civilizations in the Old World coincidentally had obvious corresponding relations with four textile fiber raw materials: flax widely used in Egypt, cotton mainly produced in India, wool primarily produced in ancient Babylon, and silk dominantly produced in China.

Although it originated from the Near East,flax seemed to be utilized in textile first in Egypt. Flax braided fabrics of 5000 BC were found in Fayum and Badari, which were still quite crude. Besides, a massive volume offlax yarn and fabrics were found in Robenhausen, the earliest Neolithic period site (3750 BC) found along the banks of lakes of Alps located at the border of Switzerland and Italy.

Sheep and goats were ﬁrst domesticated in the middle and lowest reaches of Tigris and Euphrates of West Asia, but it was widely used in textile in different areas, covering the whole West Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and Europe in early periods. However, wool textile in Central Asia might be introduced from West Asia.

In India, a country with profound history, cotton textile was developed from a very early time. Cottonﬁbers and cotton textiles of 5500 years ago were unearthed at Mohenjo-Daro site located in the valley of the Indus River in today’s Pakistan.

These cotton fibers were identified as fibers of cultivated cotton, proving that cotton was the main textile raw material in India. But, shortly thereafter, cotton textile technology was gradually introduced into Persia and Europe and Africa before the Common Era andfinally the northwestern areas of China around the Common Era.

However, China, a country located in the east, mainly used silk as their textile raw material. According to archaeological references, silk originated from the Yellow and Yangtze River Valleys in China more than 5000 years ago. The earliest known solid evidence of using silk was found in 1926, when Li Ji, one of the first generations of Chinese archaeologists, excavated a site of Yangshao culture at Xiyin Village, Xia County, Shan Xi, where half of a silkworm cocoon was unearthed. After verification by many scholars, this half of a silkworm cocoon was deemed as an important material evidence of the fact that silkworm cocoons and silk were used in ancient China. Currently, this silk worm cocoon has been kept in Taipei’s Palace Museum. In 1958, archaeologists in Zhejiang found a bamboo basket at Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang in Huzhou. There were some textiles and strip lines and other material objects in the bamboo basket, which were identified as

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tough silk sheets, silk thread, and ribbons by Zhejiang Textile Institute back then and later by Zhejiang Technology University. Later, Archaeological Institute of Zhejiang also found some silk ribbons which were made around 4000 years ago at this site.

The third material evidence was debris of silk and linen fabrics of around 5500 years ago unearthed at the Neolithic site at Qingtai Village, Xingyang City, in the 1980s, which was the most direct material evidence of ancient Chinese producing and using silk 5000 years ago. According to the aboveﬁndings, we can see that Chinese silk boasts a history of at least 5000 years. China’ s silk was also introduced to other countries afterward, such as Japan and South Korea, making it a key feature in the textile culture of East Asia.

Besides the feature of using silk, China’ s textile raw material in the early time also included a great amount of wool and hemp-ﬁber.

The majority of wool fabrics were found in Xinjiang, a place closely linked with textile culture of Central and West Asia. A large sum of wool fabrics with different varieties were found at sites of early Bronze Age (around 3000 years ago) in Xinjiang discovered by archaeologists, including Xiaohe Cemetery in Lop Nor, Wubao and Yanghai Cemeteries in Turpan, and Zagunluke Cemetery in Qiemo, although theseﬁndings have yet to be appraised thoroughly.

Celluloseﬁbers of plants were also widely used in China in early times, and there were many choices. For example, kudzu fabrics of around 5000 years ago were unearthed at Caoxieshan Site in Wuxian County, Jiangsu, as said in Shijing-Zhou Nan-Ge Tan (Classic of Poetry-Odes Of Zhou And The South-Ge Tan):

How the dolichos spread itself out, Extending to the middle of the valley!

Its leaves were luxuriant and dense.

I cut it and I boiled it,

And made bothﬁne cloth and coarse, Which I will wear without getting tired of it.

Dolichos in the poem is the kudzu vine, with the Latin name of Pueraria lobata (Willdenow) Ohwi. It’s a kind of perennial herbaceous liana of Leguminosae, featuring thick and long stems. Besides, it’s a type of sarmentous plant, always spreading on the ground or winding on other plants. Kudzufibers can be extracted through“Cutting off and cooking”; “Chi” (fine cloth) and “Xi” (coarse cloth) are all fabrics made of kudzufibers.

In addition, among hemp-fibers, Northern part of China mainly used hemp, which has a scientific name of Cannabis sativa L. It’s a kind of annual dioecious herbaceous plant. Southern part of China, however, used ramie with the scientific name of Boehmeria nivea (Linn.) Gaudich. As mentioned in Shijing-Chen Feng (Odes Of Chen)-Dong Men:

The moat at the east gate, Isﬁt to steep hemp in.

That beautiful, virtuous, lady, Can respond to you in songs.

The moat at the east gate, Isﬁt to steep the boehmeria in.

That beautiful, virtuous, lady, Can respond to you in discourse.

The moat at the east gate, Isﬁt to steep the rope-rush in.

That beautiful, virtuous lady, Can respond to you in conversation.

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The “Ma” and “Zhu” in the poem refer to hemp and ramie, respectively, and

“steep” means a process of soaking skin of hemp in the water to obtain ﬁbers. “Rope- rush” in the last paragraph means sedge, a kind of cogongrass, which was used for making rope back then.

4.2 Cultural Opportunity of Origin of Silk

The most distinctiveﬁber in the textile industry in early China, however, was silk ﬁber.

The main silkworm species used in Chinese textile history was Bombyx mori L., which was a kind of economic insect feeding on leaves of mulberry trees and spinning their cocoons, and also called mulberry silkworm. This is a kind of insect with complete metamorphosis. It will go through four development stages in its life cycle: silkworm egg, silkworm, chrysalis, and silk moth featured by completely different forms and physiological functions (see Fig.4.1). Silk egg is the stage when the embryo develops and grows into a larva of silkworm. During the larva stage of silkworm, the silkworm grows up by absorbing nutrition from food, commonly known as“Can” or “Can’er” in Chinese. In the silkworm stage, or the caterpillar stage, the silkworm will go through four skin molts. When it sheds its old skin, it will not eat; hence, it was also called dormancy. After four times of dormancy, the silkworm is called a matured silkworm, whose body becomes completely transparent, and it stops eating and begins to spin itself in a silk cocoon. After the silkworm spins its cocoon, it sheds its skin and becomes a chrysalis, and about seven days later, the silkworm moth, also known as the adult silkworm, emerges from the cocoon, which is also the copulation stage when male silk moths and female silk moths mate and female moths lay eggs for reproducing offspring. Female silk moths lay eggs after copulation with male moths. Generally, one Fig. 4.1 Four growing and

changing forms of silkworm

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female moth can lay around 500 eggs. Cocoon silk span by the silkworm is used by people for producing silk fabrics.

There are many legends of silk origin with long history. People worshiped many kinds of silkworm gods, among which the most famous ofﬁcial legend was Leizu, Yuan Fei of Yellow Emperor, who invented raising silkworms, while the most popular one circulated among people was the story about Silkworm Horse Maiden (Matouniang).

The legend about Leizu raising the silkworm wasfirst found in Lu Shi by Luo Mi of the Song dynasty (960–1279): “Xilingshi, Concubine Yuan of the Yellow Emperor, was named Leizu. She was thefirst one rearing silkworms and therefore people worship her as the silkworm goddess.” It’s also recorded in Tong Jian Gang Mu Qian Bian-Wai Ji by Jin Lvxiang:“Xilingshi or Leizu married Yellow Emperor was Concubine Yuan. She was thefirst one who taught people to rear silkworms to get silk from the cocoon for clothes, thus people needn’t worry about suffering from cracked skin and chilblain, consequently, later generations deified her as the silkworm goddess.” Since Leizu or Xilingshi’s clan was located near the Xiling Gorge in Sichuan, therefore it’s assumed that Leizu’s technology of breeding silkworms might come from Sichuan.

Among various legends about the origin of breeding silkworms among the people, the best known one was the legend of Silkworm Horse Maiden. Many scholars also called it silkworm-horse story, which wasﬁrst recorded in Sou Shen Ji by Gan Bao of the Jin dynasty (265–420):

According to a very ancient myth, there was a father who traveled far away and left his daughter at home who took care of a horse by herself. The girl lived a hard and lonely life, missing her father very much, so she joked with the horse: I will marry you if you would bring my father home. Hearing the words, the horse broke the reins and ran away to the place where her father was. When her father saw the horse, he felt pleasantly surprised and pulled the horse to ride on it. The horse looked at the direction where it came from, keeping crying. Father said: this horse is crying, is there anything happens at my home!

Thus he urgently rode the horse back home. He thought that the horse had unusual feeling and thus gave it more hay. The horse refused to eat it. Each time when the girl came in or went out, it would spare no efforts to attack her happily and madly, which happened more than one time. The father felt quite surprised and secretly asked his daughter. The girl told her father what she said to the horse:“It must be this reason”. The father said: “Don’t spread the words or it may bring disgrace to the family and you’d better not come out.”

Then he sneakingly killed the horse with a bow and arrow and dried the horse skin in the yard. After the father was again off on his travels, his daughter was playing with a neighbor girl by the horse skin, kicking the skin with her feet and mockingly said:“You’

re just an animal. How can you marry a human wife? You were killed and peeled for this reason. You brought this on yourself, didn’t you?” Before she ﬁnished her words, the horse skin suddenly engulfed her and whisked her away. The neighbor girl was very afraid and dared not to save her. She ran to tell the girl’s father. The father returned and searched for his daughter, but his daughter had lost. Several days later, heﬁnally found that his daughter and the horse already changed into a big white silkworm (with a horse shaped head) that was spinning silk threads in a large tree. The silk cocoon was much stronger and thicker than normal silkworm. A neighbor woman took the silkworm and harvested the silk for several times. Thus the big tree was named mulberry. The Chinese character“sang (mulberry)” is pronounced the same as “Sang (mourning)”. Thus people all began to plant this kind of tree, which become today’s trees for silkworms.

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As a matter of fact, the thrive of silk industry in China was due to several basic elements. First of all, it’s resources. There were numerous wild mulberries and wild silkworms in China which produced many kinds of wild silkworm cocoons. Sec- ondly, China enjoyed developed ancient culture. Around 5000 to 7000 years ago, our ancestors who lived in the Neolithic period had created relatively comprehensive cultures in terms of clothing, food, housing, transport, production, religion, art, and war, providing the environment for producing silk. Another condition was opportunity. From tremendous data of archaeology, ethnonymics, and anthropology, we can conclude that invention of silkworm-rearing technologies and silk industry originat- ing in China was based on special Chinese culture.

Mulberry silkworm was a kind of creature possessing the most magical changes in the nature. Such transforms amazed people in all ages. Silkworms go through four forms from silkworm egg, silkworm, chrysalis, to silk moth. People always associate the transformation between motion and station (including dormancy and waking up) of silkworms with the most important issue back then—the heaven, the earth, the life, and the death. Silkworm egg is the beginning of life. Hatching of silkworm resembles the birth of life, while dormancy and wake-ups resemble different stages of life. Chrysalis can be regarded as a kind of death, death of the original life, while ﬂying moth born out of chrysalis resembles human soul after death. Similar ideas can also be seen in Bo Wu Zhi:“Chrysalis, another name of soul,” and LiJi-Tangong II:

“Confucius said that the making of the straw figures was good, and that the making of the (wooden) automaton was not benevolent.” Figures here refer to wood figures, mud figures, etc. Its original meaning might be related to chrysalis. In tombs of Yangshao culture, nearly half of the dead were buried in urn coffins near the foundations. It’s assumed that holes left on the urn were to let the dead’s soul freely go up to heaven. This might also be originated from the association with chrysalis changing into a moth and breaking through the cocoon after having been dead for seven days. As urn coffins were mostly used for burying dead children who have weak strength, it’s necessary to leave holes in advance. Later on, one of the approaches for people to ascend to heaven and become immortals was called Yu Hua (literally means to sprout wings), which can also be associated with chrysalis becoming a moth.

The magical and important changes happened on silkworms also make their crucial habitat—mulberry sacred. From legends of ancient history, the mulberry forest, the habitat of silkworms, had a close relation with folk activities. There were two types of activities in the mulberry forest: one was lovers secretly meeting each other, offering a sacrifice to Gaomei God (who is in charge of marriage and childbearing) and praying for children; the second was offering sacrifice to the god and praying for rain. Praying for children was for descendants, and praying for rain was for harvests. These top two important activities of humans in ancient times were held in the mulberry forest, indicating the importance of mulberry to our ancestors. The fact that the mulberry forest was the place where couples secretly meet with each other can be verified in many historical data, among which the records in Shijing were the most abundant, such as Wei Feng(Odes Of Wei)-Shi Mu Zhi Jian:

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Among their ten acres, The mulberry-planters stand idly about.

'Come,' [says one to another], 'I will return with you.'

Beyond those ten acres, The mulberry-planters move idly about.

'Come,' [says one to another], 'I will go away with you.'

While the most obvious evidence is records in Yong Feng-Sang Zhong:

I am going to gather the dodder, In theﬁelds of Mei.

But of whom are my thoughts? Of that beauty, the eldest of the Jiang.

Such kind of customs was also reﬂected in some artistic works of back then.

Images of picking mulberry leaves can be found on a large number of bronze wares of the Warring States, depicting the very scene of men dating women in the mulberry forest and offering sacriﬁce to Gaomei God (see Fig.4.2). All these stories seemly indicate that in the mulberry forest, it’s especially easy for gods to communicate with humans; therefore, in Zhou dynasty(1046–256 BC), when men dated women in forests of mulberry trees, they would usually offer sacriﬁce to God of childbearing, Gaomei. The most famous example of the praying for rain in mulberry forest was King Tang of Shang (1600–1046 BC) praying for rain in forests of mulberry trees.

Many documents recorded this story. For instance, it’s recorded in Lv Shi Chun Qiu-Shun Min that:“In the past, Tang overthrew Xia dynasty (2070 BC-1600 BC) and dominated China. The nation had been suffering drought and crops were lost for ﬁve years. Then Tang prayed to God by providing his own body as the guarantee in a forest of mulberry trees.” It’ s annotated in Huai Nan Zi by Gao You that: “The mulberry forest was the place where people offered sacriﬁce and praying for rain.”

Due to importance of the mulberry forest, people further imaged a kind of sacred tree based on mulberry trees which was called Fu Sang (a large mulberry), a place for the suns to rest, as mentioned in Shan Hai Jing-Hai Wai Dong Jing:“There is Fu Sang in Tanggu (where the sun rises) and the ten suns rest on Fu Sang.” The concept of sacred tree Fu Sang was formed at least in the period from King Pangeng to King Wuding of Shang dynasty. One of the bronze trees unearthed from Sanxingdui Site of Shang dynasty in Guanghan, Sichuan, was conﬁrmed as Fu Sang. Under the bronze tree is a trumpet-shaped base, with nine branches on a straight tree trunk.

Fig. 4.2 Picture of harvesting mulberry leaves on bronze wares

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On each of the branches and the top of the tree, there stands a bird, with decorations of bronze dragons, rings,ﬂowers, and leaves hanging on the branch. Since then, images of Fu Sang were commonly seen in artworks of Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties. The image of Fu Sang was also found on the painted box unearthed from Zeng Hou Yi tomb in Leigudun, Hubei province. On the box, Fu Sang is painted as a giant tree, with ten suns in total: on both sides, there are two branches symmetrically with one sun on each of the branch. Besides that, one is also on the top of the trunk, and another one was shot by Hou Yi before it changed into a bird. Such image of Hou Yi shooting the sun further illustrated and provided the proof of people’s imagination of Fu Sang back then (see Fig.4.3).

As a result, the silk obtained from this tree are not common fabrics, and wearing clothes made of silk for clothes will surely facilitate communications between humans and the heaven. Therefore, it’s not always a bad thing to spin a cocoon around oneself. Instead, it could be the only route for soul ascending to the heaven.

As a result, the dead was wrapped with silk fabrics or silkfloss, similar to using silk materials to make an artificial cocoon so as to help the dead’s soul ascending to heaven. The earliest known silk fabrics up to now were from an urn coffin of Yangshao Culture site at Qingtai Village, Xingyang, Henan, which was used to wrap children’s corpse. Later relevant records concerning burial customs found in Li Ji-Li Yun also proved this use:“They dealt with the flax and silk so as to form linen and silken fabrics. They were thus able to nourish the living, and to make offerings to the dead; to serve the spirits of the departed and God. In all these things we follow the example of that early time.” Weaving the hemp-fibers into cloth to nourish the living and silk into fabrics to bury the dead indicates that people use cloth and silk fabric for different purposes. Cloth was used for the living, while silk was used for the clothing of the dead. It’s also confirmed in the burial customs unearthed from No. 1 Tomb of Chu State in Mashan, Jiangling. As silk production gradually developed, elderly people also began to wear silk clothes. It’s recorded in Meng Zi-Liang Hui Wang that:“Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with theirfive mu, and persons of fifty years may be clothed with silk,” indicating similar meaning. This sentence not only shows respect for the aged but also implies the meaning of silkworm spinning itself in a cocoon when it gets old.

Apart from being used as clothes for the dead, in early times, silk was also used in sacriﬁcial garment, as recorded in Li Ji-Yue Ling that: “When this has been Fig. 4.3 Image of Hou Yi shooting the sun on lacquer wares unearthed from Zeng Hou Yi Tomb

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completed, she apportions the cocoons, weighs out (afterward) the silk, on which they go to work, to supply the robes for the solstitial and other great religious services, and for use in the ancestral temple.” Not one is allowed to be idle, which indicates that silk obtained by breeding silkworm was mainly used for clothes to wear when people offered sacriﬁces to the god and ancestors at ancestral temple. Li Ji-Ji Yi further elaborated the rite of breeding silkworms for cocoons and the purpose of making clothes:

When the (silkworm) year was ended, the honourable ladies hadfinished their work with the insects, and carried the cocoons to show them to the ruler. They then presented them to his wife, who said, 'Will not these supply the materials for the ruler's robes?' She forthwith received them, wearing her head-dress and the robe with pheasants on it, and afterwards caused a sheep and a pig to be killed and cooked to treat (the ladies). This probably was the ancient custom at the presentation of the cocoons. Afterwards, on a good day, the wife rinsed some of them thrice in a vessel, beginning to unwind them, and then distributed them to the auspicious and honourable ladies of her three palaces to (complete) the unwinding. They then dyed the thread red and green, azure and yellow, to make the variously colouredfigures on robes. When the robes werefinished, the ruler wore them in sacrificing to the former kings and dukes; all displayed the greatest reverence.

People wear clothes made of silk when offering sacriﬁce to deceased monarchs and ancestors. Similarly, silk was also used as sacriﬁce, such as silk manuscripts or paintings on silk, which intended to use silk as a kind of carrier to convey the information on silk manuscripts or transport things wrapped in silk to the other world. The most famous silk manuscripts were unearthed from Zidanku, Changsha, Hunan, which has characters written in the center and magical pictures painted surrounded it (see Fig.4.4). In addition, silk manuscripts were also used for covenant between two states, as recorded in Zuo Zhuan-Ai Gong Qi Nian:“Da Yu held the

Fig. 4.4 Silk manuscripts in the Warring States period

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conference of feudal princes at Tushan, and ten thousands of feudal princes came to offer him jade objects and silk fabrics.” Another Chinese idiom also goes: “to exchange weapons of war for gifts of jade and silk (turn hostility into friendship).”

Here jade and silk manuscripts were all materials for writing credential scripts which would be buried into the ground or burned withﬁre after written, indicating that these written words would be conveyed to the heaven.

As a kind of very delicate creature, silkworm is vulnerable to severe natural environment. For sustainable raising of silkworms, our ancestors began to build silkworm rooms to carefully breed them, hence giving birth to China’ s mulberry silk industry against Chinese distinctive cultural background. After the Spring and Autumn period as well as the Warring State period, as silk production increased gradually, the mysterious feelings toward silk began to weaken. Meanwhile, Chinese society also gradually moved toward a feudal society with ritual systems from an early sorcery world focusing on unity of heaven and man; thus, the use of silk was gradually combined with Chinese society’s ritual systems and became one important part of ancient Chinese society.

4.3 The Raw Materials of Textile and Its Warm-Keeping Function

Common textile materials, especially cotton, wool, and hemp, are mainly used to make clothes for warm keeping in winter particularly. Generally speaking, people usually wear cotton coats and cotton trousers in winter, and fairly wealthy people may wear lined short gowns and trousers made of silkﬂoss. But before cotton was introduced into China, the materials of winter clothes worn by Chinese people were distinctive in different regions. According to document records and unearthed objects, in winter, ancient Chinese people worn fur coat, Maohe (short coat made of animal hair and coarse hemp), Mianyi (clothes stuffed with silk ﬂoss or cotton), etc.

Northwest China produces fur and wool. Fur coats and wool fabrics worn by ancient people 3000 years ago unearthed in Xinjiang basically indicate that fur and wool clothes were common for people to wear. But in inland area, the scarcity of fur and wool made fur coat particularly precious, and mostly only kinsmen of the emperor and rich families living in the north wore coats made of such material.

It’s frequently mentioned in Shijing that fur coats in those days were mostly made of lambskin and raw fox skin. Zheng Feng, Tang Feng, and Hui Feng in Shijing all included a poem titled Gao Qiu (Lambskin Coat), respectively. In Hui Feng-Gao Qiu, it says:“In your lamb’s fur you saunter about; In your fox’s fur you hold your court.” Wen Yiduo, a Chinese poet and patriotic ﬁghter, explained it as “Senior ofﬁcials usually wore lambskin coats and when they went to court, they wore fox skin coats.” Another poem titled Bin Feng-Qi Yue says: “And take foxes and wild cats, to make furs for our young princes,” also talking about a kind of fox skin coat.

Such kind fur coat also can be seen on the wall paintings in the tomb of Xu Xianxiu

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of the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, where the host of the tomb was depicted as wearing a fur coat.

Maohe is a kind of coarse and thick fabric woven with hair fabrics (mostly wool fabrics), which can also be used to keep warm and is commonly found in tombs unearthed in Xinjiang in early time. Although it’s not compared with wearing fur coat, Maohe was used by common people. As written in Bin Feng-Qi Yue:“Without the clothes and garments of hair, how could we get to the end of the year?” It indicates that people used to make clothes with such coarse wool fabrics to keep warm in winter. In southern areas with warmer weather, clothes made of such coarse wool fabrics can also be used to keep warm. Today’s Scotch tweeds may also be a kind of Maohe, indicating that people all around the world use Maohe to keep out the cold. Tao Yuanming, a writer and poet living in the Jin dynasty, used to live in Jiangxi province, and his way of keeping warm was drinking and wearing Maohe.

Dilapidated house is accompanied by the moaning wind, seeing the courtﬁlled with weeds. Get up with Maohe on the back and sit awake through the night, and it’s difﬁcult to wait for the daybreak coming.

(Yin Jiu-The Sixteenth of the Twenty Poems)

The most common winter clothes for ordinary people were lined clothes, which were comprised of two layers, with thermal insulation materialsfilled between two layers. It was called Fuyi (复衣, literally means double-layer clothes) or written as Fuyi (複衣, homophone). Such clothes were invented to keep warm in areas without fur or feather, which can be classified into the following categories according to different materials or quality of thefillings.

The main category offilling materials was silk floss. Back then, silk floss had many names in Chinese, such as Mian, Xu, and Kuang, possibly due to their quality, but it’s difficult to distinguish. The best silk floss was made of cocoons directly, just like rinsing silkfloss today. The second level was of a little inferior quality, which was silkfloss made of leftovers of cocoons. The third level was used old silk floss.

Today, we also need to refresh and stretch the silkfloss clothes after wearing it for several years and refill the silk floss back in it. If the quality of old silk floss is too poor, then new silkfloss will be added. All these clothes stuffed with silk floss can be classified as Mianyi, Xuyi, or Kuangyi. Ancient China began to levy silk and silk floss as taxes since the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), indicating that in clothes in real life, silkfloss and silk were equally important. There are also many records concerning Mianyi in ancient documents. Bai Juyi, a realistic poet of the Tang dynasty (618–907), composed a poem with five characters to a line, named Xin Zhi Bu Qiu (newly made cotton clothes):

Cloth woven with ceiba produced in Guiguan (today’s Guangxi) is as white as snow, silk ﬂoss produced in Wujun (today’s Suzhou) was softer than cloud. The cloth and silk ﬂoss are heavy and thick, keeping fading warmth after they have been made into fur clothes.

Wearing the fur coat, sit from morning to the evening, covered with it, sleep from evening to the next morning. No one knows that in the cold winter, the body still feels as warm as in spring.

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That is to say, Mianyi (cotton clothes) made of silkfloss can make the body feel warmth of spring in winter. In Tang dynasty, the central government provided spring clothes and winter clothes for frontier troops. According to records of documents found in Dunhuang, there were three kinds of winter clothes, including long-sleeved clothes, coats, and trousers made of silkfloss, all of which could be stuffed with silk floss. There was also a story about Mianyi of frontier soldiers during Kaiyuan era of the Tang dynasty (685–762). It’s recorded in Full Collection of Tang Poems that some of the clothes made of silkfloss (“Kuang Yi”) for frontier troops were made by maids in the imperial palace. A solider accidentally found a poem in the clothes (Poem in the Robe) by a maid in Kaiyuan era, Volume 797, Full Collection of Tang Poems:

Dear soldiers defending the borders, you have worked very hard, are you asleep? I don’t know who will wear the coat I made with my own hands. I deliberately put more silk yarns in it and include all my affection. We have no chance to get together this life, I hope we can fall in love with each other in the future life.

This soldier submitted this poem to the officer who then handed the poem over to the court. Back then Emperor Xuanzong of Tang searched the palace with the poem, trying tofind out the writer of the poem. Finally, a maid admitted her guilt. Emperor Xuanzong somehow had compassion for her and didn’t punish the maid, but instead he married her to that soldier. Officers and soldiers of frontier troops all wore Mianyi in the cold northwestern area, indicating that Mianyi was common clothes for people to wear in winter back then.

However, since it’s not easy to breed silkworms and silk ﬂoss was expensive, although it was main raw material for winter clothes back then, not all people could afford it. Coarse hemp was inferior to silkﬂoss, which was called Yun, as mentioned in Shuo Wen: Yun, jumbled mass of silk or hemp, means coarse hemp. Clothes stuffed with coarse hemp were called Yunpao. It’s recorded in Lun Yu(The Analects)- Zi Han that:“The Master said, “Dressed himself in a tattered robe quilted with hemp, yet standing by the side of men dressed in furs, and not ashamed - ah! It is you who is equal to this! He dislikes none, he covets nothing - what can he do but what is good!”

Zi Lu kept continually repeating these words of the ode, when the Master said,

“Those things are by no means sufﬁcient to constitute perfect excellence.” Xing Bing explained Yun as“intermingling nettle hemp for making robes.” As Confucius said, probably only Zi Lu would not blush when he wore Yunpao and stood together with those wearing fur overcoat. Yunpao mentioned here means poor-quality winter coat, and fox fur and raccoon fur coats were of good quality. Tao Yuanming also mentioned Yunpao. He said in Ji Cong Di Jing Yuan Wen (A tribute to his deceased brother Jingyuan) that“There are no coarse clothes in winter, and gourd ladle and rice basket are urgently needed in summer.” All these show that the common materials for winter clothes in the south were Yun and He, both of which were inferior in quality and were not very good for keeping warm but comparatively appropriate for south with higher temperature. Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534) recorded using oakum to keep warm in the preface to Qi Min Yao Shu

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(Essential Techniques for the Peasantry) that“Ci Chong held the post of prefecture chief of Guiyang (in today’s Hunan). People in those days generally didn’t grow mulberry trees and ignored matters on breeding silkworms, growing mulberry trees, weaving, silk, hemp, thus they only wore very simple clothes.”

The next level inferior to hemp was using reed catkins as wadding. This can be found in the story about Lu Yi Shun Mu by Min Ziqian in“The Twenty Four Filial Exemplars.” This may be a special case, but the possibility still existed. It’s said that Min Ziqian was from the Kingdom of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period and was also a pupil of Confucius. The contents are as follows:

Min Ziqian’s father married a second wife, who gave birth to two sons. Min Ziqian supported his parents and was obedient. Although his stepmother didn’t like him, he was still very obedient and didn’t neglect them. His stepmother envied and hated him and gave her own boys with cotton-padded clothes, but gave Ziqian clothesﬁlled with reed catkins.

His father didn’t know this. In winter, his father asked him to drive the vehicle. Ziqian couldn’t stand the cold and lost the bridle for several times. His father therefore scolded him and Ziqian didn’t defend himself. His father watched him carefully and found that he was pale in color, thus touched him with hand and found he wore thin clothes. His father tore up his coat and knew that there wasn’t cotton ﬁber in it. But the two sons born by his second wife wore pure cotton coats. His father felt very sad and wanted to drive his wife away. Ziqian burst into tears and went up to persuade his father: if mother stays with us, only one son feels cold; if mother leaves, nobody will take care of three sons, father, please think it over carefully. His father was moved by his words and didn’t divorce his wife. His stepmother corrected her mistakes and equally treated three sons, feeding and clothing them impartially, and becoming a loving mother. (Dunhuang Version of Biography of Dutiful Son)

Therefore, the following conclusion can be drawn: in ancient China, before cotton was used commonly, most people wore clothes ﬁlled with silk ﬂoss in different quality, while very wealthy people and noblemen would wear fur coats. The poor sometimes worn coarse Maohe and Yunpao stuffed with coarse hemp. Of course, some people don’t wear coats or Maohe in winter, especially those in the southern area where there’s no silk production.

4.4 Dress and Chinese Traditional Ritual System

About the relatively noble textiles, silk in particular, its relation with Chinese traditional ritual system is more important. Buyi (cloth gown) was a notion in all past dynasties of China, that is to say, those didn’t hold ofﬁcial posts could only wear sackcloth, hence the name of Buyi. But silk was the mark of nobleness and identity.

Adding its rich colors and patterns, it can be used as a symbol of rank.

The highest rank was undoubtedly costumes for emperors. Records about 12 symbols on ceremonial robes in early times can be found in Shang Shu (The Book of Documents)-Yi and Ji. The number of 12 symbols was different and specific to official’s ranks. In 59 AD (the second year of the reign of Xiaoming Emperor of Eastern Han dynasty), it’s specified that 12 symbols, including the sun, the moon,

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and the star, were used for emperors; three dukes and feudal lords should use nine symbols, including mountains and dragons; and nine ministers and ofﬁcials with lower ranks should use seven ornaments concerning pheasant. Twelve symbols in early time were lost. The earliest ones we can see today were emperors’ pictures on Dunhuang frescoes, but not all the 12 ones can be seen here. Material objects with the 12 symbols were Kesi (silk tapestry with cut designs) Gunfu of Emperor Wanli of the Ming dynasty unearthed from Dingling, Beijing (see Fig.4.5).

The symbol of the dragon was also the pattern used exclusively on clothes worn by emperors. According to historical records and archaeological findings, dragon design was used on emperors’ clothes as early as Liao dynasty (907–1125) (see Fig.4.6). By Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), large dragon with five claws was specially used for emperors’ clothes, while smaller dragon with three claws could still be used for general costumes. Since Ming dynasty (1368–1644), there were dragons with five claws and boas with four claws and flying fish and bullfights which were quite similar to dragons. Apart from dragons withfive claws, boas, bullfights, and flying fish were all used on clothes granted to officials.

Apart from patterns, color was also an important factor in different ranks. It’s recorded in history that court garments in the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) were black, while in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–25 AD), they were yellow and in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) were red. During the Han dynasty, clothes’ colors also varied in different seasons. It’s recorded in Hou Han Shu-Yu Fu Zhi that there werefive colors for court dresses in different seasons: blue for spring, scarlet for summer, yellow for the last month of summer, white for autumn, and black for winter. The nobles also worn purple at home as daily clothes, while common people always worn green in their daily life. It’s mentioned in Jiu Tang Shu-Yu Fu Zhi that when Emperor Gaozu of Tang ruled the country, he wore ochre yellow robes and garments and forbade his people wear yellow and specified that princes and officials of the third rank and above should wear purple silk robes and garments with big Fig. 4.5 Kesi Gunfu (robes

worn by the emperor) with 12 symbols of Ming dynasty

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flowers; officials of the fifth rank and above should wear vermilion silk robes and garments with small flowers; officials of the sixth rank and above should wear clothes made of yellow silk and cloth decorated with double-silk ribbon; officials of the sixth and seventh ranks wore green clothes. By the time Tai Zong of Tang dynasty ruled the country, officials of the seventh rank should wear green court dress made of damask silk decorated with tortoise shell and double giant geometry grain silk, while officials of the ninth rank should wear clothes made of mixed damask silk of blue silk and cloth. Generally speaking, using four colors—purple, deep red, green, and blue—to imply different official ranks originated from the Sui (581–617) and Tang dynasties (618–907). Since the middle of the Tang dynasty, the emperors also granted brocade decorated with wild goose holding ribbon in the mouth and brocade with decoration of Gu Zhou (a kind of bird mentioned in ancient books) holding Rui Sha in the mouth to senior officials, such as surveillance commissioner and provincial governors in charge of civil and military affairs, etc. Such pattern of wild goosing holding ribbon on brocade was still used in Liao dynasty and was also found in tombs of Liao dynasty (see Fig.4.7). Color grades of official costumes in Song dynasty were the same as those of the Tang dynasty, but there were some differences in brocade patterns on clothes. According to Song Shi-Yu Fu Zhi, officials of the first rank were granted with lantern decorative brocade, the second with Cusipandiao thin brocade, the third with yellow lion exquisite brocade, the fourth with Cuimao thin brocade, the fifth with red brocade, and the rest high-ranking officers with narrow brocade gown, including Cuimao, Yinan, Yunyan, lion, lianque, Baozhaoda, and Baozhaozhong brocade.

All the civil and military ofﬁcials of the Ming (1368–1644) and the Qing dynasties (1644–1911) used Buzi (Chinese traditional 12 kinds of decorative Fig. 4.6 Dragon robe of Liao

dynasty

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patterns on ceremonial dress and court dress) for different ranks. According to Ming Shi-Yu Fu Zhi, in 1391 (the 24th year of the reign of Emperor Hong Wu), Buzi on informal clothes was stipulated as follows (see Fig.4.8):

Duke, marquis, earl, emperor’s son-in-law: kylin, Baize (white marsh);

Civil official: red-crowned crane for officials of the first rank, golden pheasant for the second rand, peacock for the third rank, wild goose for the fourth rank, silver pheasant for Fig. 4.7 Pattern of wild

goose mouth-holding ribbon brocade in Liao dynasty

Fig.4.8 A group of Buzi in Ming dynasty

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theﬁfth rank, egret for the sixth rank, Xichi (a kind of water bird) for the seventh rank, oriole for the eighth rank and quail for the ninth rank;

Military official: lion for officials of the first and second ranks, tiger and leopard for the third and fourth ranks, bear for thefifth rank, young tiger for the sixth and seventh ranks, rhinoceros for the eighth ranks, sea horse for the ninth rank.

Paradiseﬂycatcher for clerks other than ofﬁcials.

Supervisor: Xiezhi (mythical Chinese unicorn)

There are two types of Buzi: round ones and square ones. The former mainly included patterns of dragon, boa etc., used for kings, princes and aristocrats; and the latter was used for ofﬁcials of all ranks. The detailed descriptions are as follows:

Civil official: crane for officials of the first rank, peacock for the second and third ranks, wild goose for the fourth rank, silver pheasant for thefifth rank, egret for the sixth rank, Xichi for the seventh rank, quail for the eighth rank and paradiseflycatcher for the ninth rank;

Military official: kylin for officials of the first rank, lion for the second rank, leopard for the third rank, tiger for the fourth rank, bear for thefifth rank, young tiger for the sixth rank, rhinoceros for the seventh and eighth ranks, sea horse for the ninth rank.

In general silk patterns, silk art also changes in terms of popularity and fashion style with times. Decorative patterns on bronze ware, pottery, lacquer ware, and gold silver ware also followed the decorative style of silk, or influence each other interactively, showing common characteristics of an era. For example, since the middle of Bronze Age, small geometry grains such as fret and thunder patternfilled into rims and gaps of animal patterns appeared on various sacrificial vessels, which might be impacted by animal theme embroidery on shadow stitch fabrics with geometry designs. After the Silk Road route was established, Chinese silk art communicated with Western textile art and formed the most luxurious silk patterns of the Tang dynasty, casting influence on the regions and countries along the Silk Road. After Song and Yuan dynasties, we can always see designs of Jing Di Kai Guang pattern, with Suo Wen of small geometric shape as the background, such as Qushui pattern, Suojia pattern, Qiulu pattern, etc., and nest-shaped patterns with rings as the theme. Such designs were undoubtedly inspired by silk pattern design, and a lot of them appeared on almost all works of art, including pottery, metal ware, lacquer ware, and architecture. In Ming and Qing period, silk patterns even became an important means for people to express blessings. Important themes of silk patterns include:“abundant harvest of all food corps”; “auspicious happiness in over mea- sure”; “three durable plants of winter—the pine, the bamboo, and the plum”;

“abundant offspring, felicity, and longevity”; “having many offspring like Lotus”;

“love for all seasons”; etc. (see Fig.4.9).

4.5 Three Main Development Stages of Chinese Textile Technology

From the perspective of technologies for textile production, we can divide the history of Chinese ancient textile industry into two major stages: the period of the classic system, which is from Shang and Zhou period to the middle of Tang dynasty, and the

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period of the traditional system, which is from the middle Tang dynasty to Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasty. To be more speciﬁc, the classic system can also be divided into three phrases: Shang and Zhou period was the formation phase; Qin and Han dynasties were the peak; and the period from Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern dynasties to the middle of Tang dynasty was the transitional period when classic system gradually broke down and integrated new technical factors. As for the phase of the traditional system, the period from the late Tang dynasty to Song dynasty was the formation phase, and in Yuan dynasty people learned from Western textile technologies, and in the period of the Ming and Qing dynasty the traditional system matured. Since the late Qing dynasty, traditional system begun to collapse due to the impact of Western modern textile technologies. Modern technology system of textile production wasﬁnally established in the Republic of China and last today.

4.5.1 Classic System

Textile production in different regions is featured by silk products in the north and Ma products in the south, and areas for silk production also include the northwest and northeast. Back then, the center for silk production was the middle and lower streams of the Yellow River, and the government established ofﬁcial silk production organizations in the capital Chang’an and in main areas of producing silk such as Qi, Chu, Shu, etc. Until the early Tang dynasty, central plains in middle and lower streams of the Yellow River and Sichuan were still important silk production areas.

But silk production in the middle and lower streams of the Chang Jiang River, particularly regions south of the Chang Jiang River, enjoyed rapid development after Fig. 4.9 Auspicious pattern

on silk in the Qing dynasty

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An-Shi Rebellion (a catastrophic setback for Tang dynasty), thus basically forming a situation of tree equally important areas in the late Tang dynasty.

Textile production is an important part of people’s life. Each household, if their places were suitable for breeding silkworms, would obtain mulberry trees to raise silkworms and paid thin silk as taxes. In places suitable for growing hemp, taxes were paid by turning in hessian cloth. It’s recorded that in the Han dynasty, a total of ﬁve million silk fabrics were given to the government as gold in a year. In Cao Wei period (220–265), household regulation system was ofﬁcially adopted, which lasted until the early Tang dynasty when Zu-Yong System was adopted, which levy taxes of silk and Ma fabrics. As for general circulation markets, silk was one of the important currencies of block trade.

The mulberry trees were featured by tall branches, and silkworms were mainly bivoltine type. As for silk reeling tools, in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze yan was used as silk reeling pot, and simple silk reeling tools were invented for reeling silk in hot soup. Since around the Han dynasty, hand silk reeling machine had been used for reeling silk until the Tang dynasty. Bastﬁber manufacturing was conducted mainly by means of retting, twisting, or weaving.

Later in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, textile production had already seen two kinds of looms and weaving technologies. One was pedal loom, the shedding of which was controlled by foot, used for weaving silk fabrics and hemp fabrics. The second one was jacquard, which used Hua Ben (similar to painting model, made with silk yarn and cotton thread on fabrics according to dermatoglyphic pattern designed on the paper) or heddle to control lifting patterns of organizes, which was only used for silk manufacturing. Structure of silk fabrics was also an important part of weaving technologies. In this period, plain weave was the basic structure, and there had no true twill weave yet. As for leno fabric, a special four-and-complex gauze, also known as chainlike leno, was popular back then. Besides, the warp-faced structure of jacquard fabrics, brocade in particular, were warp-patterned, which means presenting decorative patterns by showing colorful orsey silk in regular patterns on the surface of fabrics.

Traditional Chinese dyes are mainly vegetable dyes. From the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Northern and Southern dynasties, although some dyes were introduced from the surrounding areas, most dyes were domestically produced. Red dyes were mainly made of madder and zinnober in a large amount, a kind of mineral dyestuff; as for blue dyes, indigo plant and woad were directly used for dyeing without fermentation; and yellow was dyed with cotinus coggygria and cape jas- mine. Mordant method was mostly adopted for dyeing, and the main mordant was plant ash and iron-bearing materials. Printing technologies were originated from hand painting, and the Han dynasty began to see true printings, which were made with bronze block printing stencil in combination with hand painting. This method had been used until Tang and Song dynasties, but new-type resist printing methods also gradually emerged in Wei and Tang dynasties. Method of embroidery of this period was basically lockstitch, which is delicate and intricate.

In addition, silk trade on the Silk Road also showed the characteristics of stages.

Exchanges between China and the West, both Grassland Silk Road in early times and

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Zhang Qian’ s mission to the Western region during the reign of Emperor Wu Di of the Han dynasty, were relied on the route through China, Central Asia, West Asia, to the Mediterranean regions. Governments on the central plains operating the Western regions during the period of Han and Tang dynasties particularly made the Silk Road in the Northwestern Area a crucial route that decorated with deserts and oases.

Compared to this silk road, although the maritime silk road had seen quite a lot of development with North Korea and Japan, the proportion is still quite low.

4.5.2 Traditional System

Since An-Shi Rebellion, chaos caused by war in the north forced the government to attach importance to silk production in the south. Southern migration of the emperor of the Song dynasty made the south become the center of silk production, and the scale of bast ﬁber manufacturing gradually decreased. Since the Yuan dynasty, cotton planting began to become common around the country, and the story of Huang Daopo was the true reﬂection of this historical fact. Silk production further concentrated in the southern areas. Therefore, mulberry silk production of this period was mainly in areas south to the Yangtze River. For example, state-owned weaving and dyeing factory in Ming dynasty were mostly located in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, while state-owned fabric manufacture in Qing dynasty was concentrated in Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, hence the name of Three Fabric Manufacturing Areas in the southern areas. Massive volumes of silk were produced in the south and consumed by the imperials in the north. Cotton textile industry maintained its dominance in the private sector.

From the relations of textile and social economy, due to two-tax law coming into force in the middle of the Tang dynasty, textile’s position in central ﬁnance greatly decreased, and the currency role of silk had been weakened. Later generations gradually pay taxes in money. Silk production in the folk, however, tended to be more commercialized and specialized. Many cities and townships specialized in textile, and professional markets relying on this were formed in the southern areas.

Great changes also occurred in foreign trade of silk. Due to Islamization of Central Asia, the Silk Road in the northwestern area was blocked from time to time, while the Maritime Silk Road in the south was prosperous. During the Song and Yuan dynasty, a great number of port cities emerged in the southern coastal regions, and silk products were transported to North Korea, Japan, and other countries in Southeast Asia and then transferred to other countries by sea. The magniﬁcent feat of Zheng He leading his ﬂeet to voyage to the Western Sea in Ming dynasty especially composed the greatest chapter in the Maritime Silk Road.

In terms of technologies, the transferring of center of sericulture production to regions south of the Yangtze River made the relevant technologies adaptive to the environments of the south. The main types of mulberry trees were changed into those with branches of medium and low height and large quantities of dense planting mulberry ﬁelds of mulberry trees with branches of medium and low height. The silkworm-breeding technology of“Chu Kou Gan” —increasing the temperature at

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the time of mounting—not only beneﬁted the reliability of reeling silk but also guaranteed the style of thin silk produced in regions south of the Yangtze River.

Models of silk-reeling machines also enjoyed considerable improvement. Perfect pedal silk-reeling machine had already emerged by Song dynasty, and experience of

“Chu Shui Gan” was also summarized for silk reeling techniques. Although techniques for bastﬁber manufacturing basically remained the same, technologies for cotton textile were introduced into China from the North and the South and enjoyed improvement and development in China. Multi-spindle pedal spinning wheel and large spinning wheel invented by Chinese people have greatly improved textile production rate.

Common looms already used two heddles widely in Song and Yuan period. At ﬁrst the looms were single-acting double-heddle and double-tread machines, and interactive double-heddle and double-tread looms appeared in Yuan dynasty, taking the place of axile-styled single-heddle looms in early time. As for models of jacquard looms, Shuzong loom gained its dominate position in Song dynasty. Jacquard weave was controlled by Hua Ben made of doubling thread, including small and large ﬂower pattern jacquard looms, hence marking one of the highest silk techniques of ancient China.

The organization structure of fabrics also witnessed huge changes: Twill, satin weave successively appeared in basic organizations, and chainlike leno in leno weave gradually became less common; leno featuringﬁxed doup end organization sprang up, and nap cloth begun to use shorn-pile method, while double weave used more backed clothﬁxed with ground retinervus and special tying-in; the method of pattern-forming also evolved from warp threads to weft threads; thus, lots of fabrics such as Kesi (silk tapestry with cut designs) and Zhuanghua (a kind of colorful jacquard silk fabric) made by adopting shuttle-controlled techniques became popular. All mentioned above were the new factors of weaving technologies in this period.

After the Tang dynasty, red dyes mainly used red ﬂowers and hematoxylin through acid dying and mordant methods. Blue dyes mainly prepared indigo blue by fermenting lime and dying through reduction method. Few changes occurred to yellow dyes; only more sophoraﬂowers were used. As for mordant, most plant ash was replaced by alums. In the Tang and Song dynasties, resist printings were prevailed, except some other printing technologies, gray paste resist printing, wax printing, Hui Xie (similar to today’s blue and white printing), and Jia Xie (knock-out printing) became the mainstream. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, silk printing and dying was on the wane, but blueprint cloth enjoyed rapid development, becoming the most important mean for decorating cotton textile. Embroidery stitches also experienced material changes in the late Tang dynasty. Plain stitch and its varied methods were used a lot, and there even appeared a wide range of varied well-known local embroidery techniques, including Gu embroidery, Su embroidery, and Jing embroidery, but chain embroidery became extremely rare.

The Tang dynasty saw the most varied artistic styles of silk. Application of precious ﬂower pattern, in particular, changed themes of silk decoration from animals to ﬂowers, plants, birds, and insects. In Song dynasty, decorative styles

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showed hobbies of scholars, and painting flowers became the mainstream of silk decoration. Variousflowers such as peony, lotus, plum blossom, chrysanthemum, peach blossom, and bamboo leaf were widely used on silk products. There were also matching patterns of bee, butterfly, fish, insect, heron, egret, wild goose, magpie, and modeling style of realism. During the Ming and Qing period, flower and plant patterns were still pervasive in silk decoration, but its manifestation tended to be stylization, and the themes were mostly conveyed through auspicious patterns, implying auspiciousness in every word.

4.5.3 Modern Industrial System

In the late Qing dynasty, Western advanced textile technologies had exerted great impacts on China. Many businessmen introduced new style power machinery equipment and new-type raw materials and technologies from the West and employed Western technicians to establish factories in China, hence forming the modern Chinese mulberry silk industry and cotton textile industry, as well as modern textile industry system.

China’s modern and contemporary silk industry started from industry of silk reeling with machine at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1861, a British businessman set up the Silk Reeling Establishment in Shanghai, which was China’s ﬁrst foreign silk enterprise. In 1872, Chen Qiyuan founded Ji Chang Long silk reeling factory with steaming machines, China’s ﬁrst domestic private silk enterprise, in Nanhai, Guangdong (see Fig.4.10). These enterprises not only used advanced industrialized silk production machinery but operated in production forms of Western factories, bringing China the modern industrialized production system.

Later, other industries, including silk industry and printing and dyeing industry, also began to adopt industrialized production mode successively.

Fig. 4.10 Silk reeling machines used by Chen Qiyuan

(a) Picture of complex steam silk reeling machine. (b) Picture of a single steamed machine

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Rearing silkworm in a scientiﬁc way and reforming silkworm seeds improved species of silkworms, and crossbreeding also improved quality of silkworm cocoons.

Atfirst, Italian-style and French-style horizontal silk reeling machines were used for reeling silk. Later Japanese-style vertical silk reeling machines were adopted, which improved silk production and quality. Cotton textile and wool textile industry also enjoyed rapid development, and a great number of modern spinning factories were built around the center of Shanghai, Nantong, Wuxi, and other places. In addition, various new-style artificial fibers were popular at that time, bringing huge changes in the structure of raw material production.

As for weaving technology, China introducedﬂying shuttle machine at the end of the nineteenth century, changing throwing and receiving shuttle with two hands into throwing shuttle and pulling cord with one hand, which not only accelerated the speed but also broadened the width of fabrics. Then gear drive was also used toﬁnish pacing of warp and batching. At the beginning of the twentieth century, ironwood weaving machine and power looms were used. Components of weaving machines were most made of iron, and the weaving machines were driven by electricity. As for jacquards, wooden jacquards were introduced and later its needles were gradually increased and the body of the machine was changed into iron one. Replacement of these facilities marked the introduction of modern silk weaving technologies. By the second half of the twentieth century, silk reeling machines, spinners, and looms further developed toward automation and computer-aided intelligent textile manufacturing machines.

With development of chemical industry, chemical dyes gradually took the place of traditional vegetable dyes. Since the end of the nineteenth century, China has already used massive quantities of chemical dyes for painting. At the beginning of

Fig. 4.11 China’s First Silkworm Academy

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the twentieth century, Chinese national capitalists established factories using machines for dying yarns and cloth of various colors. Machine printing appeared in the 1930s and roller printing machines were usedﬁrst and then square screen printing machines were used. Printing industry also saw watermark replaced by paste-printing; accord- ingly, technologies of aging, washing, andﬁnishing also improved.

The biggest difference between the production system of modern textile industry and traditional system was that the former had a complete set of systematic scientiﬁc research, education, and publishing organizations. In 1897, Hangzhou Silkworm Academy founded by Lin Qi, prefecture chief of Hangzhou back then, set the precedent of silk education in modern China (see Fig.4.11). After that, silkworm schools and silk industry schools were successively opened in many places, culti- vating talents in urgent need for Chinese silk industry. By the twentieth century, various schools, research institutions, and promotion institutions engaged in the textile industry had been established around the country. Monographs and professional journals concerning textile were published, and a great number of professional textile talents were cultivated. East China Institute of Textile technology in Shanghai used to be China’s most important institution of higher education of textile, which was renamed China Textile University later (today’s Donghua University). At the end of the twentieth century, various textile museums, including Nantong Textile Museum, Suzhou Silk Museum, and China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, were also built in the important textile production areas (see Fig.4.12).

Fig. 4.12 China National Silk Museum